Taking Our Faith From "Nice Idea" To Tangible Reality (In Search Of Truth, Hebrews 12:2)

(Hebrews 12:2, ESV) looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.


The author of Hebrews has finished giving us historic examples of faith and is now describing how we ought to live out our faith, using the metaphor of a foot race.

In verse 1 he urges us to get rid of sin and all other "non-essentials" in life, living with a steady endurance rather than with inconsistent "bursts" of faith.

In verse 2 he tells us to fix our eyes on Jesus as we "run the race". In ancient Greece, athletes would fix their eyes on the finish line in order to run in a straight line and not add any unnecessary steps between themselves and victory. In the same way, we are commanded to fixate on Jesus constantly.

Jesus is called "the founder and perfecter of faith"(there is no "our" in the Greek). There is some disagreement about what exactly being the "founder" of faith means, but we can at least gather from these two words that Jesus is instrumental to both the existence of our faith and the eventual perfection of it. This makes him the ultimate resource as we endeavor to live out our faith.

The example of faith we see in Jesus is that he endured the cross for the joy that would come after. This was presumably the joy of reconciling us to God and ultimately fixing the broken state of creation.

In light of this future joy, Jesus also "despised the shame" that came with the cross, which was a humiliating death that, at the time, seemed to verify what all his enemies said about him. The Greek word for "despised" contains the idea of "thinking little of". In other words, Jesus thought that his humiliation on the cross was insignificant and not worth giving any thought to. The joy that came later because of his sacrifice on the cross far outweighed the shame that came with it. And on top of enabling the rescue of all creation, Jesus now sits at the right hand of the Father, in the greatest position of honor in all the universe.


SO WHAT'S IN THIS FOR GEEKS?

Jesus thought shame and humiliation weren't worth thinking about. And yet I fixate constantly on how others might perceive me. I want to be like Jesus and stop caring what others think. And not in that overcompensating, arrogant and angry way where we say "I don't care what they think because they're stupid, sinful, or have inferior standards". I want the negative appraisals of others to be helpful self-examination tools, and for the pointed insults of others to only increase my compassion for them.

How did Jesus do that? How did he constantly have that eternal perspective that is so short-lived and elusive for us?

I think we would all get the answer correct on a written exam if we were asked "Who should we model our lives after?" We'd fill in the bubble marked "Jesus", hand in the scan tron sheet and leave the the classroom confident. But then out in the real world we feel defensive insecurity creep over us as we interact with others. By ourselves at home we face a recurring feeling of discontent and emptiness that our entertainment only numbs temporarily. We long for recognition and respect as we seem overlooked and taken for granted. We can get a whole bunch of biblical worldview answers right on the test, but in day to day life, popular values and priorities take over our minds. In theory our hope is in the future God has promised, but that future doesn't seem as real to us as the problems we face every day. So we wonder where this new life and eternal perspective is that we're supposed to be experiencing as redeemed, forgiven, children of God.

That life is found in Christ. And I don't mean that in some vague sense. I'm not suggesting that if we close our eyes, click our heels and repeat "I am crucified with Christ" we'll become transformed. I'm saying the kind of faith that transforms us and those around us, the kind of faith that God uses in powerful ways, is seen in Christ.

Although it may not seem so at a glance, Jesus did not have a sort of built in superfaith that was effortless to maintain. If you recall from way back in chapter four:

(Hebrews 4:15, ESV) For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.

This includes temptation to doubt. Jesus would have felt the beckoning appeal to lose faith in The Father. During his earthly ministry Jesus denied himself access to his own omniscience.(Mark 5:30, Matthew 24:36) So we need to leave behind any simplistic ideas about Jesus having a faith that was effortless on his part. It was perfect, and unfailing. But far from effortless. Which means if we want to have the kind of fulfilled and effective life we long for, we should become students of the life of Jesus, looking at him from every angle to see how he approached life and faith.

We ought to read the accounts of his life and freeze in our tracks when he behaves in a way that seems totally beyond our reach, and then ask ourselves "how was he living life in order to be ready for this amazing moment?" Jesus didn't always have the right answer and the right perspective because he flipped some internal "god-switch" when the moment called for it. He spent his life training for those "big game moments" recorded in the gospels. If we watch him closely we see evidence of patterns in his life that prepared him for the people and situations he would encounter.

The two patterns that stand out most to me are a habit in scripture and a habit in prayer. Although calling them habits would be putting it lightly. Jesus knowledge of scripture and ability to quote passages relevant to the moment was amazing, and the evidence of a lifetime dedicated to reading, pondering and internalizing God's word. Jesus also regularly dedicated significant time in isolated relationship with The Father.

And those are just two basic "pro-tips" we can get from Jesus that barely scratch the surface. The rest is waiting for us to discover and apply to our lives, so that we can experience the incredible kind of life we were always meant to live.